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Siegfried: The Liberator of Germania
Just over two thousand years ago a great hero liberated his people from the clutches of the Roman Empire, defeating the Romans in the most decisive battle in world history and forever changing the course of Western Civilization. Although his Latin name, Arminius, was recorded by prominent Roman historians, there was surprisingly no mention of him in the later discovered sagas of his own Norse people. Yet, the Norse and Germanic legends from Iceland to Austria all tell of a mythical dragon slayer named Siegfried, who was noble and brave, and who shared many similarities with the true to life warrior Arminius. Is it possible that the greatest hero in Norse literature was purely mythological, and that the one true historical hero, who saved his people and generations of their descendants from slavery, was completely forgotten? The only logical conclusion is that the dragon slayer Siegfried is the mythical transformation of the historical Arminius. Without a doubt, his victory over the Romans in the Teutoburg forest in the year AD 9 was a feat worthy of legendary status. This is his story─ the saga of Siegfried, Liberator of Germania.
- GenresHistory
106 pages, Hardcover
Published February 26, 2020
4585 people want to read
About the author
John Eklund
9 books84 followersJohn Eklund is a Norse mythology and European history buff, and author of the historical fiction novels, The Third Testament and Siegfried: The Liberator of Germania. John resides with his wife, three children, and three dogs in the Chicago suburbs.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
May 28, 2020
I won a copy of Siegfried: The Liberator of Germania by John Eklund from Goodreads.
Using a combination of Norse Mythology, Germanic Folklore, historical facts, and the legends that grow out of true events, John Eklund presents the story of a powerful warrior and his influence on our world in Siegfried: The Liberator of Germania. With notes and references to prove his research, Eklund has created an easy-to-read work of fiction to delight history buffs and lovers of mythology alike, as well as to engage casual readers. Siegfried is a wonderful addition to your mythology collection!
Using a combination of Norse Mythology, Germanic Folklore, historical facts, and the legends that grow out of true events, John Eklund presents the story of a powerful warrior and his influence on our world in Siegfried: The Liberator of Germania. With notes and references to prove his research, Eklund has created an easy-to-read work of fiction to delight history buffs and lovers of mythology alike, as well as to engage casual readers. Siegfried is a wonderful addition to your mythology collection!
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May 23, 2020John Eklund’s richly illustrated Siegfried: The Liberator of Germania is a wonderful excursion for young people into ancient Germanic mythology and history. The story of the great Germanic hero known to us as Arminius is an extremely important one, since his defeat of three Roman legions in AD 9 profoundly changed the course of all later European and world development. Modern English, a Germanic language, would not exist, nor would our system of English law, let alone England as a non-Romance country and everything that flowed from these foundations.
As Eklund points out, the name of blue-eyed Arminius (also spelled Armenius) is derived from Latin armenium, an ultramarine-colored stone imported from the province of Armenia. His brother, Flavus (“the Blond”), was also named for an aspect of his physical appearance: his hair.
The author includes a fair number of short myths and improvisations — such as an encounter with, and rescue of, the future parents of Jesus on their way to Bethlehem — which embellish the narrative as fictional adornments.
An important feature of the book is Eklund’s extensive inclusion of ancient Germanic mythology and its pantheon, detailed in a glossary at the end of the volume. This is important because a people’s mythology is often a metaphorical expression of its religious thought and motives. To explain a bit: although not expressly mentioned in Siegfried, the religion of the pre-Christian Northerners was based on shamanism. A shaman, religiologically speaking, is a tribal religious specialist who deliberately undergoes a Near-Death Experience (NDE), descends as a “death-sailor” (“thanatonaut”) to the Netherworld and communes paranormally with the spiritual entities there, whence he returns to give important information to his tribe about hunting, war, health and the like. The body of a shaman who was out of his or her mind in such a state was said to be wōð “demonically possessed, insane, berserk.” The suffix -in-/-an-, meaning “leader, commander, chief” was added to this root to create the name Wōðan, later becoming Wōtan, Óðin, Wōden (“Lord of the Possessed”) in the various Germanic languages. In English, WEDNESday is actually “Wōden’s day.” The god (in fact more like an “archangel” in modern Christian terminology, not the universal Fate or Cosmic Mind, which was instead termed Wyrd by the ancient Germanics, a noun whence our modern adjective “weird”) was intimately connected with death and the Beyond. As the prototypical shaman, Wōðan had buried one eye in the Well of Urd (Wyrd), which is also the Well of (the decapitated) Mimir (Cosmic Memory), so he was omniscient. A bier carried by four men (and hence eight legs) was said to be his eight-legged “horse,” Sleipnir, carrying the dead warrior to Val-halla (“Hall of the Slain”). Val-kyries — women who CHOSE (kyr-) those to be slain (val-) — were his witch-like devotees. The Old English cognate was wæl-ćyrie “chooser of those to be slain” (i.e., in human sacrifice). The name Hel — the root comes from ancient Indogermanic *kel- meaning “to cover over” (with dirt, as in burial), also seen in English conCEAL from Latin conCELare — originally referred to the grave itself.
The deep psychic roots of this religion in Siegfried’s soul were clearly powerful motivating factors in his drive to repel the Roman advance into Germania. With the insuperable powers from beyond the grave as his spiritual force, he changed the history of the world and was unquestionably the liberator of Germany (liberator haud dubie Germaniæ — Tacitus, Annals , 2.88). In Siegfried and in the Clades Variana (Disaster of Varus), we witness the ability of transcendent Fate to alter world history and put a limit to even the greatest of human empires.
It should also be mentioned that the original form of the name Siegfried was probably *Sigifriðaz or even *Sigiwarðaz (Old English Sigeweard). And as regards the Nachleben of his historical impact, the story of the hero’s destruction of the dragon-like column of Roman legions found echos in the later (ca. AD 725) Saxon tale of Beowulf, as elsewhere. At the conclusion of this latter epic, Beowulf the Geat (i.e., the Goth) kills the dragon, but dies in the process because he is abandoned by most of his own followers — rather as Siegfried fell through the treachery of his own relatives (dolo propinquorum cecidit — Tacitus, ibidem), quite likely poisoned by them.
John Eklund’s book is a great introduction not only to the story of Siegfried himself, but to the history of the beginning of Western civilization. English-speaking readers everywhere will enjoy the work and learn a great deal from it about the fierce religio-martial crucible from which our present world arose.
As Eklund points out, the name of blue-eyed Arminius (also spelled Armenius) is derived from Latin armenium, an ultramarine-colored stone imported from the province of Armenia. His brother, Flavus (“the Blond”), was also named for an aspect of his physical appearance: his hair.
The author includes a fair number of short myths and improvisations — such as an encounter with, and rescue of, the future parents of Jesus on their way to Bethlehem — which embellish the narrative as fictional adornments.
An important feature of the book is Eklund’s extensive inclusion of ancient Germanic mythology and its pantheon, detailed in a glossary at the end of the volume. This is important because a people’s mythology is often a metaphorical expression of its religious thought and motives. To explain a bit: although not expressly mentioned in Siegfried, the religion of the pre-Christian Northerners was based on shamanism. A shaman, religiologically speaking, is a tribal religious specialist who deliberately undergoes a Near-Death Experience (NDE), descends as a “death-sailor” (“thanatonaut”) to the Netherworld and communes paranormally with the spiritual entities there, whence he returns to give important information to his tribe about hunting, war, health and the like. The body of a shaman who was out of his or her mind in such a state was said to be wōð “demonically possessed, insane, berserk.” The suffix -in-/-an-, meaning “leader, commander, chief” was added to this root to create the name Wōðan, later becoming Wōtan, Óðin, Wōden (“Lord of the Possessed”) in the various Germanic languages. In English, WEDNESday is actually “Wōden’s day.” The god (in fact more like an “archangel” in modern Christian terminology, not the universal Fate or Cosmic Mind, which was instead termed Wyrd by the ancient Germanics, a noun whence our modern adjective “weird”) was intimately connected with death and the Beyond. As the prototypical shaman, Wōðan had buried one eye in the Well of Urd (Wyrd), which is also the Well of (the decapitated) Mimir (Cosmic Memory), so he was omniscient. A bier carried by four men (and hence eight legs) was said to be his eight-legged “horse,” Sleipnir, carrying the dead warrior to Val-halla (“Hall of the Slain”). Val-kyries — women who CHOSE (kyr-) those to be slain (val-) — were his witch-like devotees. The Old English cognate was wæl-ćyrie “chooser of those to be slain” (i.e., in human sacrifice). The name Hel — the root comes from ancient Indogermanic *kel- meaning “to cover over” (with dirt, as in burial), also seen in English conCEAL from Latin conCELare — originally referred to the grave itself.
The deep psychic roots of this religion in Siegfried’s soul were clearly powerful motivating factors in his drive to repel the Roman advance into Germania. With the insuperable powers from beyond the grave as his spiritual force, he changed the history of the world and was unquestionably the liberator of Germany (liberator haud dubie Germaniæ — Tacitus, Annals , 2.88). In Siegfried and in the Clades Variana (Disaster of Varus), we witness the ability of transcendent Fate to alter world history and put a limit to even the greatest of human empires.
It should also be mentioned that the original form of the name Siegfried was probably *Sigifriðaz or even *Sigiwarðaz (Old English Sigeweard). And as regards the Nachleben of his historical impact, the story of the hero’s destruction of the dragon-like column of Roman legions found echos in the later (ca. AD 725) Saxon tale of Beowulf, as elsewhere. At the conclusion of this latter epic, Beowulf the Geat (i.e., the Goth) kills the dragon, but dies in the process because he is abandoned by most of his own followers — rather as Siegfried fell through the treachery of his own relatives (dolo propinquorum cecidit — Tacitus, ibidem), quite likely poisoned by them.
John Eklund’s book is a great introduction not only to the story of Siegfried himself, but to the history of the beginning of Western civilization. English-speaking readers everywhere will enjoy the work and learn a great deal from it about the fierce religio-martial crucible from which our present world arose.
June 15, 2021
What a great little book! I read this in one sitting. It's a wonderful mix of myth, history and story. The full-color illustrations are an excellent accompaniment to the text. I didn't know anything about Seigfried when I started this book, so it was very interesting to go through the stories. I loved the insertion of Seigfried saving a young couple on their way to Bethlehem! A great way to honor the sagas. Although it's full of war and all that go with that, this would be great for kids. I know I would have loved it as a child. Even so, it's also fun for adults to read.
July 18, 2023
The promo on this book implies that there is more history and less myth to the story of Siegfried. But the book seems to be about 95% myth, and most of the remainder is Roman history. The most enlightening aspect it to learn how much JRR Tolkien evidently borrowed from Norse mythology. Very disappointing.
July 26, 2023
I won this book in a giveaway and I wasn't sure what to expect exactly. By the way, my review is solely mine; I dislike reading dishonest reviews so I won't give them. I think this is a fair book that does what it's supposed to do.
This book reminds me of a book I had when I was first starting chapter books as a child. Mine was on the Old Testament, but this is of course, on Siegfried. There are a lot of short sentences that say a lot in a few words. Not terribly graphic but takes death and horrors seriously. There's varied and somewhat old language in the book (a charm imo). Sadly no maps. But the book is very re-readable and has a lot of cross comments about actual source material strewn about the book - I thought that was valuable. I'm ambivalent about the color on every page; while it makes the book look less cheap (if you had white pages every page it tends to look cheap) but it does make the page darker.
For some reason I thought this was going to be a paperback for adults, but it's a nice full sized (9X 11.5?) hardback for early-ish readers, and anyone interested in the subject. It's kind of a primer on Norse history/mythology. I would have probably read this as a child around age 6 but it's probably an 8-12 year old read minimum nowadays. The chapters are short, 3ish pages on average? It makes for a nice bedtime story book, or a daily reader, or a book for a kid to muddle through on their own.
I will say transitions between history and myth could have been smoother, but it wasn't so terrible. It's like the kind of book that you give someone to get them used to the language used in actual historical books (so they can read it on their own) but it's not so hard to read and only gives out just enough information for you to go "ok I know there's more to this story, but at least this is the outline of it."
In any case, I'm very pleased to have this book in my collection. Thanks to the author.
This book reminds me of a book I had when I was first starting chapter books as a child. Mine was on the Old Testament, but this is of course, on Siegfried. There are a lot of short sentences that say a lot in a few words. Not terribly graphic but takes death and horrors seriously. There's varied and somewhat old language in the book (a charm imo). Sadly no maps. But the book is very re-readable and has a lot of cross comments about actual source material strewn about the book - I thought that was valuable. I'm ambivalent about the color on every page; while it makes the book look less cheap (if you had white pages every page it tends to look cheap) but it does make the page darker.
For some reason I thought this was going to be a paperback for adults, but it's a nice full sized (9X 11.5?) hardback for early-ish readers, and anyone interested in the subject. It's kind of a primer on Norse history/mythology. I would have probably read this as a child around age 6 but it's probably an 8-12 year old read minimum nowadays. The chapters are short, 3ish pages on average? It makes for a nice bedtime story book, or a daily reader, or a book for a kid to muddle through on their own.
I will say transitions between history and myth could have been smoother, but it wasn't so terrible. It's like the kind of book that you give someone to get them used to the language used in actual historical books (so they can read it on their own) but it's not so hard to read and only gives out just enough information for you to go "ok I know there's more to this story, but at least this is the outline of it."
In any case, I'm very pleased to have this book in my collection. Thanks to the author.
September 16, 2021
Siegfried is a magnificently illustrated Norse mythology book, perfect for tweens and teens, and for anyone interested in Norse/Germanic myth.
http://www.theindieview.com/2021/09/0...
http://www.theindieview.com/2021/09/0...
September 26, 2021
Enjoy reading about the Romans.
March 10, 2025
Legend and fact
Very interesting and Easy to follow story linking history to legend in this awe inspiring tale! Will be reading more from John Eklund
Very interesting and Easy to follow story linking history to legend in this awe inspiring tale! Will be reading more from John Eklund
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews